https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/companies-want-employees-back-office-110000469.html With some companies requiring employees to return to the office, workers are finding ways to avoid it. Companies want employees back in the office. Over half of hybrid workers are using ‘coffee badging’ to get around the mandates. What is it? The latest tactic is “coffee badging.” It's when an employee comes into the office for a few hours in the morning to show face, but leaves by the afternoon, according to Owl Labs, a company that makes video conference solutions for hybrid workplaces.
During COVID lockdowns, lots of white collar employees realized they could get as much work done from home as they could in the office. Often more work, this higher productivity. No traffic jams to contend with, and no uncomfortable suits, ties, high heels, tight belts, and goodbye to the expensive keeping up with the Joneses via clothing and handbags. So good luck getting them to go back to the office for 40+ hours every week. They've tasted freedom and really liked it. All sorts of threats have been made, including mass firings; they haven't worked. At best (here in NYC) they have to show their faces in person at an office at least day a week, the day of their choosing. The world has changed. The city government is trying to figure out how to change laws to allow the transformation of commercial office skyscrapers into residential homes. It's not easy: https://blog.firstam.com/cre-insights/why-its-so-hard-to-convert-offices-into-housing/ https://qz.com/the-biggest-office-to-residential-conversion-project-in-1850455241
Taking attendance is the worst way to measure/manage workplace performance. There are companies who take the opposite tack, who don't even have paid time off. They expect their employees to manage their own performance. If you need to be somewhere, be there. If you need to do something, do it. If you need to go home and walk the dog, grab the leash. How? Because good managers manage to outputs and outcomes, not inputs and processes. Draconian policies that have zero relevance to success are a sign of weakness, not strength. I'm not saying being physically present doesn't have advantages. Any trainer will tell you that. But arbitrary policies substituting for good management is lame. And with the human capital market as tight as it is, they're self-defeating.
In 1996, the tallest office building in our city (at the time) was converted into condos. The building was originally completed in 1929. The new condos became just about the most desirable suites in town. At the time, the average price would have been about $75,000. They looked great and sold very quickly. Today, 28 years after the conversion, that $75,000 suite goes for an average of $500-550,000. They still look great and sell quickly. Right - it can't have been the easiest conversion - but hey, nobody ever reported it as being THAT hard. And the results were spectacular. The same technique has been used on other office buildings, with very good results. If we Canadians can figure it out - as we have - it should be a breeze for New Yorkers.
Well, it was the tallest when I was a kid - in the 1950s. Back then, my mother worked in an office there. Many buildings eclipse it now. In fact, it's not even on the list any more. Sorry for the misinfo. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Hamilton,_Ontario
Disabled people correctly note the irony that work-from-home accommodations that were widely denied to disabled people or subject to exhaustive documentation requirements suddenly became easy for employers to grant to non-disabled people since 2020.
